The upcoming “Dancing with the Stars” contestant says the network won’t let her incorporate music from her Nickelodeon Paramount+ film “The J Team” into the upcoming continuation of her D.R.E.A.M. tour.
JoJo Siwa has been a brand ambassador for Nickelodeon for years now, but the 18 year old appears to be bristling under what she sees as unreasonable constraints she claims the network is imposing on her.
Taking to Twitter on Tuesday night, the upcoming “Dancing with the Stars” contestant lashed out at the company over the upcoming continuation of her D.R.E.A.M. tour, delayed due to the ongoing pandemic. It’s currently set to pick up again on January 13, 2022.
The tour was initially developed in support of her then-fresh releases, “D.R.E.A.M. The Music” and “Celebrate,” released in 2018 and 2019 respectively. Now, however, JoJo has a new project that’s been released on Paramount+, “The J Team.”
“My movie musical was just released (with 6 new original songs),” she tweeted out Tuesday night. “Nickelodeon told me today that I’m not allowed to perform/add any of the songs from the film into my show. These are MY songs, MY voice, MY writing. Does this seem fair???”
She followed that up with an even more scathing attacking, adding, “There is no reason that this music should not be included. Working for a company as a real human being treated as only a brand is fun until it’s not.”
Muddying the waters even more, “The J Team” is a Nickelodeon movie, with Siwa also serving as an executive producer. It was released to the streaming platform on September 3, with the soundtrack (featuring JoJo’s six new songs) dropping even earlier, on July 27.
It’s unclear why they would deny her request to incorporate her newest music — on a Nickelodeon project, to boot — into her upcoming tour dates. TooFab has reached out to Nickelodeon for comment.
It could be as simple as wanting to keep the show the same as it was before it was delayed. D.R.E.A.M. The Tour initially kicked off in May 2019. After dates in the U.S., Siwa and Nickelodeon took the tour international before returning in March 2020. But only one show into their U.S. return, the tour was delayed.
It’s now scheduled to pick back up in January 2022, but an abrupt change to the set list and focus to incorporate “The J Team” would constitute a fundamental change to the show that launched in 2019.
At the same time, a lot has happened since March 2020, so should Nickelodeon be pretending that no time has passed, or would it make sense to evolve the show to add in some of the new music that fans might be looking for who just saw the new movie?
JoJo has certainly made her preference known in a very public way with these tweets, which saw her garnering the expected support from her fanbase. There were some who suspected she’s legally tied to the existing show due to contracts.
With JoJo locked in for D.R.E.A.M. through March 2022 right now, barring any additional extensions to the tour, when would there be another timely opportunity to celebrate the success of “The J Team,” and possibly cross-promote Paramount+ and drive additional viewers to the platform? Could there be a “J Team” tour in the works?
Maybe JoJo will get the opportunity to perform alongside some of that new music during her upcoming appearance on Season 30 of “Dancing with the Stars.” The teen dancer and singer will be making history by dancing with a same-sex partner. “DWTS” premieres on September 20.
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